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About 50 Horses
In recent weeks, German authorities conducted a crackdown on an alleged illegal online gambling operation suspected of facilitating wagers totalling approximately €5.86 billion over a 30-month period.
The DSWV trade body, representing licensed sports-betting operators, broadly welcomed the enforcement action as a necessary response to the illegal market’s growth and associated risks.
“This successful investigation clearly demonstrates the scale that the illegal gambling market has now reached,” said Mathias Dahms, president of the DSWV.
How to play 50 Horses
Prediction market volume attributable to “takers”—recreational and retail traders who pull liquidity from exchanges—is forecast to reach $190 billion this year.
That estimate arrives courtesy of Macquarie and is well ahead of the research firm’s previous estimate of $169 billion in 2026 taker volume.
Takers is a prediction market industry colloquialism for the market participants that swiftly fill buy and sell orders, thus removing liquidity from the marketplace. Conversely, makers are the market participants viewed as liquidity providers and professional or sharp money.
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The Logan County Sheriff’s Office responded to check the venue and confirmed a break-in: power to the building had been cut, an ATM opened, and multiple video gaming terminals smashed and emptied of cash, according to affidavits.
Heckman and Ziemer were arrested later that morning. Subsequent searches uncovered burglary tools, gaming-machine cash boxes, a stolen Hyundai that had allegedly been repainted from red to black, and other stolen equipment, according to police.
Detectives noted that cellphone records show the pair traveled frequently throughout Central and Southern Illinois, and investigators are working to determine if they are connected to additional unsolved break-ins.